Regular use or maintenance of prescription drugs has become important in ensuring the health of users thereof and is being stressed and advocated by health authorities and governmental agencies such as the United States Food and Drug Administration. To comply with a regimen, it is helpful to remember when the person taking the medication last took the medication. One way of helping in this regard is to have a closure with a visual indicator of when the closure package was last opened or when the package should be opened next.
Current compliance closures use expensive battery operated indicators. Others use mechanical constructions that are complex and costly.
Typical closures of the mechanical type are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,151,599, 4,011,829, 4,365,722 and 5,009,338. Such closures have the disadvantage that they require axial movement between the reminder components. The axial movement between an outer closure member and an inner closure member to a child resistant closure would not permit such normal axial movement between the components or such reminder closures. In addition, relative axial movement and rotation between the reminder components can cause wear and obliteration of the indicia.
Among the objectives of the present invention are to provide a child resistant reminder closure of the mechanical type which is reliable; which functions to repeatedly provide the desired information; which do not incorporate axial forces between the reminder components; wherein the components are reversible so that the change in visible indicia can be made either on application or removal of the closure; which utilizes old and well known child resistant construction; and which can be manufactured readily in high-production.
In accordance with the invention, a child resistant reminder closure comprising an outer closure member having a base wall and a peripheral skin, an inner closure member having a base wall and a peripheral skin with a bead on the outer closure member retaining the inner closure member against limited axial outward movement relative to the outer closure member. An assembly of a day disk and an indexing disk is provided on the outer closure member and is rotatable relative thereto. The day disk is provided adjacent the inner surface of the base wall of the outer closure member and is mounted on the underlying indexing disk. A first set of flexible radial ratcheting fingers extend radially from the day disk and engage radial lugs on the undersurface of the base wall of the outer closure member. A second set of flexible radial ratcheting fingers extend radially from the day disk and engage circumferentially spaced lugs on the upper surface of the indexing disk. Axially interengageable lugs and recesses are provided on the outer closure member and the indexing disk and interengaging lugs and recesses are provided between the underside of the indexing disk and the inner closure member which are adapted to be engaged to remove or apply the closure from a container thereby providing a child resistant feature. A window is provided on the outer closure member and is associated with indicia on the day disk to indicate the circumferential position or the outer closure member relative to the day disk.